William Boyd’s James Bond novel revealed to be “Solo”

The title of William Boyd’s James Bond continuation novel, due to be released in the UK in September, was revealed today at the London Book Fair by the author and later confirmed in a press release from Ian Fleming Publications.

The book is to be titled Solo, which Boyd commented on, saying:

“Sometimes less is more. For me as a novelist the simple beauty of Solo as the title of the next James Bond novel is that this short four-letter word is particularly and strikingly apt for the novel I have written. In my novel, events conspire to make Bond go off on a self-appointed mission of his own, unannounced and without any authorization – and he’s fully prepared to take the consequences of his audacity.

The journey Bond goes on takes in three continents – with the main focus honing in on Africa. It’s what happens to Bond in Africa that generates his urge to “go solo” and take matters into his own hands in the USA.

“Thus far and no further, at this stage…

He continues: “Titles are very important to me and as soon as I wrote down Solo on a sheet of paper I saw its potential. Not only did it fit the theme of the novel perfectly, it’s also a great punchy word, instantly and internationally comprehensible, graphically alluring and, as an extra bonus, it’s strangely Bondian in the sense that we might be subliminally aware of the “00” of “007” lurking just behind those juxtaposed O’s of SOLO…”

This web site is in no way associated with Ian Fleming Publications, EON Productions, Danjaq LLC, Sony, MGM or United Artists. Original content copyright 2001-2015. Extracts from novels copyright Ian Fleming Publications. Photographic and video content from Quantum of Solace and Skyfall courtesy Sony Pictures and used with permission.